North American markets dive ahead of Trump tariff announcement

The Canadian Press</span>
Published Thursday, March 22, 2018 4:53AM EDT
Last Updated Thursday, March 22, 2018 11:41AM EDT

TORONTO -- Canada's main stock index plunged this morning in a broad-based decline that includes major resource and marijuana stocks.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was down 192.11 points to 15,483.17, after 90 minutes of trading.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 365.18 points to 24,317.13. The S&P 500 index was down 37.32 points to 2,674.61 and the Nasdaq composite index was down 108.42 points to 7,236.87.

The Canadian dollar was trading at 77.44 cents US, up from Wednesday's average price of 77.17 cents US.

The May crude contract was down 82 cents to US$64.35 per barrel and the May natural gas contract, which has become the new benchmark, was unchanged to US$2.66 per mmBTU.

The April gold contract was up $8.80 to US$1,330.30 an ounce and the May copper contract was down four cents to US$3.02 a pound.

In Toronto, marijuana producer Aphria Inc. was down nearly five per cent and Canopy Growth Corp. was down about 4.5 per cent as Canada's senate prepared for a critical vote on the Liberal government's bill to legalize marijuana.

Cenovus Energy Inc. was down nearly five per cent after it said that its oilsands operations have been operating at reduced rates due to wider-than-normal light-heavy oil price differentials and pipeline capacity constraints.

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